The blog & portfolio of Matthew J. Rogers

Bliss & Highway

If you would be kind enough to donate for my work on these themes, please PayPal me (donate $1, $2, $5, $10). Thank you!


These Blackberry themes can only be installed on devices with Blackberry Operating System 4.1 or later (if you need help, see Installing OS 4.1) and with the Plazmic Theme Reader installed. If you encounter any problems with these themes, feel free to use the comment system below to let me know.

OTA downloads of both themes and wallpapers are available on my mobile site, http://mobile.rogersmj.com.

Bliss 2.1

This theme is loosely based on the Windows XP Luna look, with design ideas borrowed from em3’s excellent Luna Element Windows XP visual style. A mix of soft colors and rounded corners, Bliss aims to be pleasant to look at and easy to use.

Update to 2.1: Small and large font versions added. Minor bug fix with menu graphic background.
Download for desktop installation (size 6 small fonts):
7100 series | 7200 series/7520 | 8700 series

Download for desktop installation (size 9 large fonts):
7100 series | 7200 series/7520 | 8700 series

Download source THM file for editing in Plazmic Theme Builder:
7100 series | 7200 series/7520 | 8700 series


Highway 1.1

A combination of silver with a soft copper color, along with a (mostly) new icon set, distinguish this theme. Like Bliss, it is easy on the eyes and looks good without getting in the way. Note: unlike the “GPRS Test Network” in the first preview image, your network’s name (Cingular, Verizon, etc) should fit inside the silver graphic.

Update to 1.1: Added 7100 version, small and large font versions.
Download for desktop installation (size 6 small fonts):
7100 series | 7200 series/7520

Download for desktop installation (size 9 large fonts):
7100 series | 7200 series/7520

Download source THM file for editing in Plazmic Theme Builder:
7100 series | 7200 series/7520

Updated on October 29, 2008

118 comments

  • mustangrj April 6th, 2006 at 3:37 pm

    I guess I’m up the creek. I was able to load the 4.1 upgrade and the plazmic reader, at least it shows up in my applications list. There is no icon for it.

    There must be a way to get a digital signature. I will keep looking.

  • John April 23rd, 2006 at 12:30 am

    I am particularly fond of the Highway theme although Bliss is no slouch either. The only thing I could think of that might make them better is to have one or both available with the BBMillibank Tall font.

    Pretty please? :)

  • Darryl April 28th, 2006 at 2:12 pm

    Hey there, I installed your themes on my 7290 and they run really slow. I also downloaded the Smoothie theme from BB and that one works fine and is as fast as the default theme.

    Any suggestions on how to fix?

    Thanks !!!

  • Matthew May 5th, 2006 at 12:28 am

    Hey everyone, my apologies for being away from these comments for so long. I’ve been really busy lately.

    Let’s see…it looks like we’re having a few problems here. Unfortunately, if your problem involves being on a BES I don’t think I can help you. I really don’t know what kinds of restrictions your BES may be placing on your device.

    As far as the themes running slow…Darryl, I haven’t run into anyone else with that problem yet. How much free memory do you have? My BB really slows to a crawl when I let too many emails build up on it; I usually clean it off every 8 months or so. That’s the only thing I can think of; maybe my themes need more free RAM to run than other ones.

    To anyone else that can’t see the themes after installing them…remember to 1) have OS 4.1 installed, 2) install the reader, and 3) hard-reboot your device.

    I hope that takes care of everyone’s questions for the time being, please feel free to post more. I hope to get back into BlackBerry themes sometime this summer and make some more good ones for everybody.

  • Bhavya Desai May 9th, 2006 at 5:37 pm

    I have the same Issue. I just cleaned up my BB and reinstalled 4.1 . the Smoothee runs perfectly and so does the pixelistic. Only both of the themes using Plazmic are running slow. You can feel the delay in it. Any suggestions?

    Thanks for good work. I really loved the themes on my 7290

  • Bhavya Desai May 9th, 2006 at 5:46 pm

    I have 11824216 Bytes File Freespace. Would that affect?

  • Patrick May 12th, 2006 at 3:01 pm

    Running 4.1 with no theme issues at all. My only issue is lack of more themes, lol

  • Huw June 19th, 2006 at 10:57 am

    The like the bliss theme but could you make a list version of it or publish the images used in the theme.

    Also do you know of any way of changing the locked screen background image. As iv found it in the default theme files using a hex editor but has some form of checksum. Then themes like the vodaphone theme override this image with there own, and others allow it to be the same as the background image set from within pictures.

  • Steve June 22nd, 2006 at 5:38 pm

    Love your themes. With Plazmic, have you ever run into a problem where it won’t export a thm file? It tells me I don’t have permission or some such nonsense.

  • Matthew June 22nd, 2006 at 5:40 pm

    The only problem I’ve ever run into with Plazmic theme creator is when a resource (usually the background image) is too large. No image can be over 60KB after conversion to the proper PNG format.

  • Bill July 9th, 2006 at 11:07 am

    Hello,

    I have been working with theme builder and had a question. Is thee a way to change the background in the email lists? or is there another easy way to build custom themes that is not overly intensive that will allow the customizing of the fonts and backgrounds?

    Thanks!

  • Jon July 24th, 2006 at 1:58 pm

    So I hear you’re from Australia, how are things down under? Kangaroos!

  • Matthew July 25th, 2006 at 7:42 am

    Yes, great, thanks :D

    No, I’m not from Australia…I’m from the midwestern US. But some guy on TechGuy forums posted months ago that one could find themes on this “australian site that has two really cool themes highway and bliss” (Link: http://forums.techguy.org/dos-pda-other/444233-blackberry-themes.html). I have no idea what made him think I’m Australian.

  • Jorge Ledesma October 28th, 2006 at 10:51 am

    Hello, great theme by the way, I uploaded Bliss Large Fonts in my BB7290 and all is well except the phone app where the fonts don’t redraw properly, I’m using the 4.1 on Cingular, any ideas, thanks where can I make a contribution for theme I absolutely love it.

  • Matthew November 7th, 2006 at 10:16 pm

    Jorge–

    Thanks for your contribution and kind words. Sorry it took so long to approve your comment. I get a mountain of spam through these comment forms.

    I’m not sure what exactly you mean when you say they don’t redraw properly in the phone app. Unfortunately I don’t have a 7290 anymore so I can only test it in the emulator and I didn’t run into any problems there. If you could be more specific I will do my best to track down the error, but the Plazmic theming software is very limited.

  • Amit November 15th, 2006 at 2:35 pm

    Hi:

    I downloaded the 7200 THM files for both themes. I have edited them using PTB (changed some fonts to “HomescreenIcon”). I save the changes, and when I click the “Export” button, I set the name and the path to where I want the .alx file to be generated. Then I click “OK” and the “Export” button remains pressed for a few seconds. I checked the folder where I expect the .alx file to be, and I find nothing there. I have re-tried many times, but nothing. What am I doing wrong?

    Thanks.

  • Kevin November 27th, 2006 at 1:58 pm

    Downloaded the Bliss theme to my BB 8703e, looks geat! I’ve noticed that when scrolling through the main screen, the cursor seems to be considerably slower that when in one of the default screens. Also, the 1X/EVDO icon on the signal/power bar does not show up. Any thoughts?

    Thanks

  • Matthew November 27th, 2006 at 6:13 pm

    Amit: You may want to check for error messages. I’m not sure what could be happening. Try asking around at BlackBerryforums.com.

    Kevin: I haven’t run into any 8703e devices yet, so I don’t know what exactly the problem could be. However, I remember that the 7250 on Verizon exhibited strange bugs with certain themes. That may be the case here. It’s possible Plazmic will release an update in the future.

  • Christi March 21st, 2007 at 1:04 pm

    how do you download your ringtones? i have a 7250.

  • Matthew March 27th, 2007 at 1:04 am

    Christi: I’ve been out of the loop for awhile with that kind of stuff, but when I had my 7290 I would just email myself a link to the MP3 file and then download it through the BlackBerry browser.

  • Justin April 13th, 2007 at 12:26 am

    When I click to download the Bliss theme, or any other themes it redirects to a blog rather than the download for the theme.

  • Matthew April 13th, 2007 at 1:06 am

    Justin,

    My apologies. I switched to a new download system and apparently forgot to update this page. It should be fixed now. Thanks so much for letting me know!

  • Randy May 30th, 2007 at 3:43 pm

    Hi Matthew,
    I have tried to put together a theme and am unable to successfully download the .jad file to my 8703e. I am able to download yours, but mine just show me some type of xml code. Any idea?
    http://training.health.ufl.edu/handouts/Templates/blackberry/

    Randy

  • Matthew May 30th, 2007 at 7:51 pm

    Randy, you need to tell your web server how to handle the mimetype in a .htaccess file in that directory. This is what I have in my .htaccess file where the jad/jar files for my themes reside:

    AddType audio/adpcm adp
AddType application/vnd.rim.cod cod
AddType text/vnd.sun.j2me.app-descriptor jad
AddType application/java-archive jar

  • Dax June 22nd, 2007 at 12:30 pm

    I am trying to figure out a way to move the battery and signal meter in my BB 8703e like they have it in the default theme BB Insight (Icon).

    I have Themebuilder 4.1 but it only has the base layout with the standard meter that goes all the way across the screen.

    Any ideas on how I might be able to open the BB Insight theme to modifiy it. Basically I just want to change the background image.. That’s it.

    Thanks in advance.

  • gustavo August 5th, 2007 at 4:52 pm

    i dont know how restart my BB 7290, it give a Device Error: 400.

  • JRMora September 19th, 2007 at 10:09 am

    This theme Work in BB 8820?
    Tnx!

  • malman September 29th, 2007 at 4:00 pm

    hey how do i download it from my blacberry if i dont have a computer

  • rambo47 September 29th, 2007 at 5:42 pm

    Great theme and a great site. Donation gladly made!

  • DAN October 9th, 2007 at 5:51 pm

    I HAVE A BB7100 INSTALLED A THEME NO I HAVE WHEN MY BB LOADS AN ERROR THAT SAYS dEVICE ERROR:400 WHAT DO I DO PLZ HELP ME

  • @be October 17th, 2007 at 1:24 am

    I was just wondering if you would take both themes and add them to a Blackberry 8100 device? If so please contact me via email because I would love to have them. Thank You and I like your work!

  • Adam October 18th, 2007 at 10:39 am

    Is there a way to show only the 6 icons across on the home screen w/ the Icon Theme? Right now I can only get it to show 3 rows of 6 and I’d like to get it to lower to just 1 row. Any chance?

  • dell1003 October 18th, 2007 at 7:01 pm

    Downloaded and tried your theme, Awesome for my blackberry 8830! Small font but will sacrifice font for beauty of screen.

  • dell1003 October 18th, 2007 at 7:04 pm

    great theme on my 8830, work perfect. Small fonts but will sacrifice with beauty of theme!

  • Ray October 25th, 2007 at 9:32 am

    Hi
    Anyone tried on the ATT 8300 Curve? thx

  • Renge October 29th, 2007 at 9:23 am

    Could you do the Highway theme for 8100?

  • Punchymacias October 29th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

    New theme

  • max0001 November 6th, 2007 at 12:15 pm

    When I create a folder in the icon theme, then move something into it (like ‘options’ into the new folder ’settings’ that I just created), then I click on the new folder, it appears empty. What happened to the stuff I moved into it?

  • yohanna November 11th, 2007 at 7:28 pm

    necesito la version 8300 y no la encuentro…alguien me ayudar en español…..Lo siento

  • Thomas November 13th, 2007 at 11:56 am

    Hi,

    I have installed all 3 bPhone themes and can honestly not decide whether to use the Icon or Today version. Is it possible to get the big icons inside Today version also somehow?

    Thanks
    Thomas

  • Trebel November 17th, 2007 at 11:11 am

    Are you going to release new versions for the 8310 & 8800 devices?

  • Doug King January 22nd, 2008 at 11:43 am

    Hi, I was wondering if the Bliss theme will work on a CDMA 8703e running v4.2.1.186?

    Thanks

  • Doug King January 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    Hi, just so you know…I tried both large and small font versions of Bliss and they did load but I only get two rows of icons on display unlike images shown on site…leaves large gap before 1st row.
    Thanks

  • TJ January 27th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    =s why does it work for everyone else
    none of them will work on my bbpearl =s
    someone help me please

  • Doug K January 29th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

    Final update re: posts 94 & 94
    When running Desktop Manager, received unexpected error when doing synchronization with Outlook… uninstalled Bliss themes and all was well.
    Thanks

  • Vince February 4th, 2008 at 11:53 pm

    I love the bPhone app. It works Great!

  • Vince February 4th, 2008 at 11:53 pm

    AND ITS FREE!!! OMG!!!

  • mattsteingear February 5th, 2008 at 12:07 am

    hi all,

    I am regular user of explorePDA.com and purchased lot of apps, i got 25% discount for the purchase.

    Downloaded a mobile games and themes from explorepda.com. good website and easy to download.

    Free download protection and good support. I will recommend to my friends

    try this website,

    Cheers,

  • David February 5th, 2008 at 6:40 pm

    I downloaded new bphone themes and love them. Can you answer me one question. When i changed the font to something bigger, it does get bigger when i open a email, but the font is still very small before i open it. Any way to change the font for all print. It usually works that way with all other themes?
    Will also put something in your paypal.

    d

Leave a comment